Close to Midnight
by arysa13
Summary: It's New Year's Eve and Archie has a plan for how to tell Betty how he feels about her.


Archie isn't a huge fan of costumes. Mostly because he can never think of something interesting to dress up as. It's too much pressure. Plus, he's always just felt like kind of an idiot in a costume.

But he doesn't feel like an idiot now. Probably because the theme for this New Year's Eve party is the 1920s, so it's barely a costume. But he's wearing a waistcoat, which is not something he'd usually do. Looking at himself in the mirror, he thinks he looks pretty good. He can only hope Betty thinks so too.

It hasn't been too long since she and Jughead broke up, but Archie has been going crazy trying to hide how he feels about her for much longer than that. He's a bad friend, probably. But he loves her and he can't help it, and she deserves to know how he feels, even if she doesn't feel the same way. But she might. He thinks she might.

Except, he hasn't been able to come up with the right words to tell her. He's almost blurted it out a couple of times in the last week. But then the words stick in his throat and his brain stops working and ends up just clamming up entirely. Betty must think he's a complete idiot.

But tonight, he's got a plan. It's New Year's Eve, the perfect night for new beginnings. He's just going to wait until midnight, and then he's going to kiss her. No words necessary.

The party is at Pop's in the newly renovated basement, which has been turned into a speakeasy by Veronica. Hence the 20s theme. The party is invitation only, and there's a password and everything. Archie and his dad arrive together, give the secret word to a random Serpent hired for the night, and head down into the basement.

Archie hasn't seen it yet. He'd been down there after Veronica first bought Pop's and she'd laid out all her plans for him. They'd broken up soon after and he hasn't been allowed down since.

It looks amazing now. It's all dark mahogany and leather, the lighting low, just casting out enough of a glow to be able to see by. It's exactly what Archie imagines a speakeasy should look like.

And the place is packed already. It may be invitation only, but apparently Veronica invited a lot of people. Everyone seems to have embraced the 1920s theme as well. He spots Veronica in a black flapper dress, her hair in a faux bob, talking to Jughead and FP, both in suspenders and fedoras. He makes his way over to them, Fred right behind him.

"Hey, Ronnie," Archie grins. "It looks great. Congratulations."

"Thanks," Veronica beams. "In no small part to FP and the Serpents."

Fred shakes FP's hand. "I'm happy for you FP," Fred says. "Can I buy you a drink?"

FP nods and the two men head towards the bar. Archie focuses his attention on Veronica and Jughead.

"Is Betty here yet?" Archie asks. Veronica and Jughead give each other a look. Archie suspects he hasn't been as covert about his feelings as he would have liked. He feels his face heat up a little.

Veronica gestures over Archie's shoulder. "She's over there with Kevin."

Archie cranes his neck around and spots Betty across the room, laughing with Kevin and holding a glass of what looks like champagne. Archie's heart skips a beat when he lays eyes on her. Yeah, he's got it bad. Her hair falls over her one shoulder in finger waves, and she's wearing a silver flapper dress.

She looks over, as if she can feel him staring, and their eyes meet. Her eyes seem to light up when she smiles at him. Archie makes his way over to her, forgetting all about Veronica and Jughead.

"Hey," he says as he reaches her. All his attention is focused on her, as if Kevin isn't even there. "You look…" _Sexy_ , he wants to say. _Beautiful_. But both of those sound a little heavy for his tongue to carry. Not the kind of things best friends say to each other. Especially while Kevin is standing right there. "… great," he settles on. He immediately feels like a moron.

"So do you," Betty says. "You should wear a waistcoat every day."

"Yeah?" Archie grins, pleased.

Kevin snorts and Archie finally manages to wrench his attention away from Betty.

"Hey, Kev," he says.

"Finally noticed I'm here, did you?" Kevin raises an eyebrow. Archie grimaces sheepishly.

"He can't help it if I'm stunningly beautiful," Betty jokes. Archie and Kevin laugh, but Archie wishes she wasn't so close to the truth.

* * *

The knots in Archie's stomach tie themselves tighter and tighter the closer it gets to midnight. He doesn't spend the whole night at Betty's side, but he wishes he was every time he's not. He probably only listens to half the conversations he's supposed to be a part of.

He checks his phone constantly for the time, waiting for the perfect time to go and talk to Betty. It has to be close enough to midnight that he's not waiting forever, but it can't be so close to midnight that it's obvious what he's doing.

He finds himself by her side at quarter to twelve.

"Do you want to dance?" he asks her.

"Sure," she agrees.

Veronica has hired a jazz band for the night, and for now they're playing a relatively slow song , so he takes her in his arms, his heart pounding, and they gently rock in time to the music. He kind of wants her to rest her head on his chest, but she doesn't and he doesn't ask.

At one minute to midnight, the music stops, and Veronica gets up on the stage, clinking her champagne glass with a spoon.

"Thank you everyone for coming to the grand opening of Pop's speakeasy!" she announces. "It's now one midnight to midnight so after I've finished this speech I invite you to start the countdown. I would like to personally thank FP Jones, the new manager of the speakeasy, and of course Pop Tate, who will retain his role as manager of the diner. I hope you've all had a great night. And have a happy new year!"

Several hands reach out to help her down from the stage, though it's barely a foot off the ground. She grabs two and disappears into the crowd. Archie pulls out his phone. 11:59.

"Thirty seconds!" someone yells, and Archie stomach does a somersault. He looks at Betty and she grins at him. This is it.

Twenty seconds. He can do this. Except he doesn't know if he can. What if she rejects him in front of all these people? Even if she doesn't, he's beginning to think such a public place for his confession isn't such a great idea after all.

He feels sick. The room suddenly seems twice as crowded as before, and he's feeling claustrophobic all of a sudden. The room spins. Why are there so many people around?

He has to get out of here.

"Excuse me," he mutters, and then he's heading for the door, just as everyone in the room starts chanting in unison. Except Betty.

"Archie?" she calls after him, confused.

He races up the stairs and bursts out the front door into the freezing night. He left his coat downstairs. He doesn't feel relieved like he thought he would, instead he just feels stupid and cold. He could have kissed her right then, and he freaked out like a complete baby, and left her standing there alone.

Fireworks erupt into the sky, somewhere on the other side of town. Archie cranes his head upward, watching.

"Happy new year," comes a voice from behind him. Betty's voice. He'd recognise it anywhere. He spins around and she's standing a few feet behind him. She's actually remembered to put her coat on.

Another lot of fireworks burst into the sky. Archie takes a deep breath and steels his resolve. He marches towards Betty, and it's as if she knows exactly what he plans to do, her mouth already open for him as he kisses her, pulling her roughly against him, moulding her body to his.

He kisses her until the sound of fireworks popping in the sky stops, and then he pulls away, his heart still going at a million miles a minute.

"Happy new year," he whispers.

Betty laughs. "Why'd you run off? I was going to kiss you at exactly midnight."

"Hey, that was my move," Archie grins, then lets the smile drop a little. "I freaked out a little," he admits. "I didn't want all those people to see you reject me."

"That was never going to happen."

"But this is better, right? We got to watch the fireworks."

"I didn't see much of them," Betty smirks. Archie laughs. He kisses her again.

They don't go back to the party. Instead they sit at a booth in the empty diner, laughing, and talking, and kissing until the sun comes up.


End file.
